Isy Suttie is an actress, musician, comedian and writer. Best known for role as Dobby in the multi-award winning Peep Show, Isy is also a hugely successful stand-up and is the author of the brilliant The Actual One. We met up with Isy a few weeks back, but Coronavirus was very much on all of our minds and was the basis of our conversation. The chat soon shifted to Isy's childhood in Derbyshire and her teen years experimenting with Quija boards and how she was the go to person at parties. We disc...
Mar 24, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 59
Mark Watson is a British comedian and novelist, originally from Bristol, Mark has been a mainstay of the UK stand-up scene and has had several fiction titles published including Eleven and Hotel Alpha. We met with Mark down at Nordic Bar on what was an incredibly soggy day in London. We started our chat by talking about Seasonal affective disorder and how much the weather changes our moods. Mark told us about his early days doing stand-up and having adopted a Welsh accent, he explained the proce...
Mar 17, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 58
Layla Anna-Lee is a television presenter best known for fronting live MMA action and interviewing the best footballers on the planet. She sat down with Giles and Jim at Nordic Bar in central London to talk about moments on live TV when things went wrong, dealing with social media trolls and the pressures of being a presenter. She also brought donuts to the pod, the first guest to do so, and the three of us rated an reviewed the treats she brought because why not? Support this show http://support...
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 56
Stephen Mangan is an actor and writer. Born in London in 1968, Mangan began his acting career in theatre before moving in TV working with the likes of Armando Iannucci, Steve Coogan and in the Multi-Award winning Green Wing. In more recent years Stephen has moved away from more comedy roles to concentrate on drama, and has recently been in BBC One's The Split alongside Nicola Walker. We met with Stephen down in South London on a very brisk February morning. We began by talking about Stephen's ea...
Mar 03, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 56
Alastair Humphrey is an adventurer, author and public speaker, who has been National Geographic's Adventurer of the Year. Alastair has cycled the globe, busked through Spain and created a new movement of micro adventures. We started our chat with Alastair about his epic journey around the world, where he cycled some 46,000 miles over four years, we find out the darker times along the way, when Alastair thought he might give up, and also the experiences of kindness and seeing the best sides of hu...
Feb 25, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 55
Simon Brodkin is a comedian, performer and renowned prankster. Best known for his character Lee Nelson, which had several series broadcast on BBC 2, and more recently his high profile stunts which has seen Simon give Theresa May a P45 and gatecrash a Fifa press conference to throw money at Sepp Blatter. We met with Simon in Old Street a day or two ahead of his new stand-up tour, his first as himself. We discussed the process and differences this has been to doing character comedy shows and how i...
Feb 18, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 54
Emily Dean is a writer and presenter, well known for her role alongside Frank Skinner on Absolute radio, she also presents the amazing Times podcast Walking the Dog and is the author of the incredible memoir 'Everybody died, so I got a dog' We met up with Emily on a dreary winter's day in London, and started our conversation by talking about how we cope in a crowd, and are we performing and analysing what we say afterwards, and the perceptions we create about ourselves from the others point of v...
Feb 11, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 53
Jake Humphrey is a sports broadcaster and presenter. Originally from Norfolk, Jake started in Local TV before joining CBBC as a presenter. He's best known for presenting Formula One coverage and more recently BT Sports coverage of the Premier League. We headed down to Frequency Cafe near King's Cross to sit down for a natter with Jake over a very nice cup of coffee. Jake spoke to us about his upbringing and the encouragement and empathy he received from his parents, particularly during some chal...
Feb 04, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 52
Kerry Godliman is a comedian and actress, best known for her roles alongside Ricky Gervais in Derek and After Life. She is a regular on BBC Two's Mock the Week and has toured extensively doing stand up for around 20 years. Giles and Jim travelled down to West London to meet up with Kerry just before Christmas. We started by chatting about politics and Kerry having to do extensive research for her role on Mock the Week, before diving into growing up and getting into drama at school. Kerry talks a...
Jan 28, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 51
Dame Kelly Holmes is a one of Britain's best loved and most high decorated athletes and what better person to help celebrate our 50th Episode. We met up with Dame Kelly at Acast Studios to chat about all things Blank, she talked about her time in the army and how the levels of discipline helped her when competing as an athlete. We discussed the difficult moments that come when form dips and how one such period became incredible challenging. Kelly also opens up on how she has been affected by gri...
Jan 21, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 50
David Baddiel is a comedian and writer from London. He is very well known for his work on The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Newman and Baddiel in Pieces and his work alongside Frank Skinner on Fantasy Football. In recent years he has branch into writing books for children and his sold out tours and recent play God's Dice have been highly acclaimed. We met David on a very cold General Election Day in London, we tried to avoid politics, but could only hold back for a couple of minutes before diving ...
Jan 14, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 49
Ben Miller is a comedian, actor, and writer who is known for the award-winning The Armstrong and Miller Show and his acting roles in Death in Paradise and The Worst Week of My Life. In recent years Ben has appeared in many films including Paddington 2 and as well as publishing two highly acclaimed books for children. We met up with Ben at Nordic Bar and began our conversation by discussing Vikings and their true motives back in the day. Ben told us about his life at school and being an academic ...
Jan 07, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 48
Rufus Hound is an actor, comedian and presenter. He is best known for his regular stints on shows like Celebrity Juice and hosting coverage of Glastonbury and Top of the Pops. More recently he has been receiving critical acclaim for his acting roles in a number of stage productions including most recently The Boy in the Dress at the RSC. We met up with Rufus in Stratford Upon Avon at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where we is currently performing in The Boy in the Dress, the new musical based on...
Dec 13, 2019•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 47
John Bradley is an English actor, best known for his role as Samwell Tarly in the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones, and has recently finished work on the film Marry Me alongside Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. We met up with John on a very cold afternoon in London to sit down and talk at length about his acting process, the little intricacies that he wants to put into every role and how sometimes that attention to detail spills into his real life. We discussed the pressure of expectation on...
Dec 10, 2019•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 46
Dawn French is a British actor, comedian and writer. Her partnership with Jennifer Saunders, which began in the early 80's has produced multi-award winning sketch shows for the BBC and made them household names. She has been a successful actor in her own right starring in comedy shows like The Vicar of Dibly and dramas such as Delicious for Sky Arts. Dawn is also a prolific writer and has had several bestselling novels including A tiny Bit Marvellous and her ME/YOU Diary. We met up with Dawn on ...
Dec 03, 2019•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 45
Jess Impiazzi is an actress, writer and former glamour model and reality TV star. Jess first came to prominence during her time on Ex-On the Beach and Celebrity Big Brother, but her first love has always been acting, having trained at Italia Conti as a teenager and she's now back doing what she loves. We met up with Jess in Surrey to talk about her early life and the many challenges and difficult moments she faced at a very young age. Jess talked candidly about suffering from depression in her l...
Nov 26, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 44
Sir Nick Faldo is one of the greatest British golf players of all time, winning The Open three times – the first home player to do so since Henry Cotton – as well as the Masters also three times, he spent 97 weeks as No.1 in the world and is now a regular analyst for CBS and designer of courses. We met up with Sir Nick in his UK home in Eton, right by the river Thames. It was an early start for us all, so we hastily retreated to a local cafe to grab a cuppa and chat about Sir Nick's incredible c...
Nov 19, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 43
Melvin Odoom is a British DJ, Broadcaster and Comedian. Alongside Rickie Haywood-Williams and Charlie Hedges, Melvin has hosted Kiss Breakfast every weekday morning. Melvin has presented on TV shows like Xtra Factor, Bang on the Money and Channel 4's Lego masters. Giles and Jim met up with Melvin just before the summer to chat all about 'blank' moments in broadcasting, how having a positive outlook on life has lead to many opportunities and considering new paths to travel including stand-up come...
Nov 12, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 42
Lucy Pinder is a British model, actress, and podcaster. Originally from Winchester, Lucy has been seen in several films and has made many TV appearances in Dream Team, Book at Bedtime and Celebrity Big Brother. We met up with Lucy back in July at Acast to chat about our mutual love of podcasting, changing careers and how Lucy's 'blank' moments come from an unexpected place. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Le...
Nov 05, 2019•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 41
Jessica Fostekew is a comedian, actor, writer and podcaster. We met up with Jessica just before the start of her Edinburgh Fringe show, which she was busily putting the finishing touches to. We discussed food and podcasts before diving into finding out about Jessica's early life and negotiating friendship groups through secondary school and how one group allowed her to finally find herself. Jessica tells us about finding comedy and the power of collaboration, working with a producer and also, st...
Oct 29, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 40
Ellie Gibson is an award-winning journalist, presenter, stand-up comedian and co-host of the phenomenal Scummy Mummies podcast. Ellie very kindly invited us around to the Gibson house for a natter about all things BLANK. We started by talking about preparing for a live tour and Edinburgh Fringe, and the incredible success of Scummy Mummies and the podcast movement in general. Ellie told us about her early career as a video games journalist and the challenges of working in such a male dominated i...
Oct 21, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 39
James O'Brien is a British broadcaster, radio presenter, journalist and podcaster. James is best known for his show on LBC and his recent book 'How To Be Right' We met up with James back in July to talk about his early life, going to boarding school and how he eventually followed in his father's footsteps to become a journalist via a short stint trying his hand at acting. James talked candidly about his time working as a gossip columnist and what led him into broadcasting and his now infamous ta...
Oct 14, 2019•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 38
Tiffany Stevenson is an English stand-up comedian, writer and actress, who has starred in the highly acclaimed Gameface and People Just Do Nothing. We met up with Tiff not long after she'd returned from LA, where she had been doing some stand-up shows as well as working on a new show she is writing for HBO. We talked about the differences in the comedy scene in the US from the UK and how blank moments are a common occurrence when writing new material and formulating a new show. Tiff told us abou...
Oct 07, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 37
Ed Byrne is a stand-up comedian and actor. Often seen on shows including Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo, Ed is currently on a huge nation wide tour with his show 'If I'm Honest' It was down at the Nordic Bar just before the summer holidays that we met up with Ed to talk all things comedy. Ed told us about his journey into stand-up from studying horticulture at university to heading to London to join the club circuit. We discuss blank moments in writing new shows and searching for perfect b...
Sep 30, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 36
David Harbour is an American actor from New York who has performed in film, television, and the theatre. He is best known for his role as Chief Jim Hopper on the Netflix original series, Stranger Things and the lead in the new adaptation of HELLBOY He is also known for his role as CIA agent Gregg Beam in Quantum of Solace, Shep Campbell in Revolutionary Road alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Van Hauser in End of Watch and Dexter Tolliver in Suicide Squad Trying to arrange interviews for the podcast i...
Sep 23, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 35
It's the summer break, so we though we'd put together a little selection of clips from some of our favourite episodes so far to keep you going till we return in the Autumn with some amazing new episodes. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 04, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 34
John Lloyd is an English television producer and writer best known for his work on comedy television programmes, including Not the Nine O'Clock News, Spitting Image, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Blackadder and QI, blackadder and QI. We spoke to John as our special guest on our first ever live podcast at Latitude Festival, which was daunting enough in itself as well as meeting one of British comedy's most influential producers and writers. We started our conversation by taking John back ...
Jul 30, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 33
Matthew Syed is a British journalist, author, broadcaster, and former British number one table tennis player. We met with Matthew at Acast Studios near Old Street on a hot day in central London. We started our conversation by talking about the challenges facing top coaches in sport and in particular the ongoing success and adaptability of top football managers like Sir Alex Ferguson. Matthew told about his journey to becoming Britains No.1 Table Tennis player and how he sustained that position f...
Jul 23, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 32
Sanjeev Bhaskar is a British comedian, actor, documentarian and broadcaster, he best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42 as well as documentary series 'India with Sanjeev Bhaskar' and Bollywood and Beyond. Most recently Sanjeev has been none for his role as DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten and is currently the Chancellor of the University of Sussex. Jim and Giles met with Sanjeev at Acast studio and started by talking about Sanjeev's l...
Jul 16, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 31
Rufus Sewell is an Olivier award-winning actor and has appeared in films such as Dark City, A Knight's Tale, The Illusionist, Tristan and Isolde, and Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. As well as films Rufus has appeared in many high profile TV shows including Victoria, Zen, Pillars of the Earth, Middlemarch, and most recently The Man in the High Castle, Zen, The Pillars of the Earth. We met with Rufus down at the Nordic Bar in central London to chat about all things BLANK. Rufus had just ...
Jul 09, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 30
